Show I 1 ra r a g HOME STUDY COURSE a S t I 1 ti wi i self education through the medium cf 1 11 prepared arcides by prominent instructors W diw S 2 S WV 7 W 7 5 C t au affat af fit MOKHO K the ethics of fiction by ANNE FITZHUGH MACLEAN i O W KM O KHO t V the predominance of the love motive Is hard to speak of the methods IT of novelists without referring at least by suggestion on almost every point to william dean howells who has cither said everything or contradicted everything and so just Is his mind la criticism and so admirable his achievement in novel writing that it is not possible to speak without deference of principles which have BO well stood the test of practical application even when agreement with them seems impossible but in bis derision of the predominance of the lovo motive lir fiction it william dean howells who dealdea the predominance of the love motive in fiction certainly appears to the ordinary observer of life that it is mr howells arid not the novelists he derides who Is mistaken lie has said many times in different ways what he long ago put into the mouth of one of his personages in silas lapham that abo whole business of lovo and and marrying is painted by the novelists in monstrous disproportion to life meaning in effect that love la one of many equal interests in a mans life or is itself a subordinate interest I 1 believe that we might leave fiction out of the question and consider only authentic biography and yet easily refute athla doctrine whether or not love and marriage ought to be of unsurpassed importance in adult life up to this time they have so proved the gances of imaginary lovers have never exceeded the extravagances of real lovers and are just as extreme with the highest type of man s with the lowest indeed it might be proved that in balte of exceptional cabes the finer the intellect the deeper the affections and that men of destiny arc those most vitally influenced by passion the tragedies of tho heart crime suicide the throwing away of a career darken the course of history not so much as they darken the course of fiction but they do so as undeniably against the fact that their dramatic value has overemphasized them in literature wo may beet the fact that but a small proportion of such occurrences in real life reaches our knowledge wo may have a lifetimes acquaintance with a man without being able to gauge the effect of his lovo experience upon hia fate or character so too tho current of a happy love a fitting mating decides the channel of the life of many a one without tho outsider perceiving that the current has been diverted from its course marriage alone cannot make but it may aid in making and can most surely mar a anns career with regard to this Is universally ver sally admitted and it la true of the other sex frequently enough to justify novelists in making love tho dominant note besides what fundamentally affects all wives and mothers can be of hardly less fundamental importance to those choso whoso lives aro inextricably interwoven with theirs often in tradition has mhd worlds history been changed by tho charms or fl women how much oftener than comes to corn mon knowledge is n nations ruler ahlm belc ruled by a wife or mistress it is william makepeace thackeray who knew the full valno ot a love but reasonable that that upon which depends the perpetuation of the human rac etho attraction of man for woman and woman for man should bo divinely created a force second to nono in impelling power such S force once operating must niter the destiny 0 him whom it impels he who lacks it lacks a vital element he who resists or overcomes it by his will has bythan very effort modified bla character the novelists further justification lu this matter Is the pw els tency ot inter abt that the world shows in hla most ancient r themes lu the face of toe innumerable love stories already existing the writer who can ten a new one it only dalri eager an audience aa it bis wre the first love etory ever told all the corid loves a lover as much as ever and there are no elens of diminution in this love subjects for novels have multiplied exceedingly we have the novel of manners ordinary life with love only incidental as it usually appears to us in the lives of others 1 the controversial the socialistic the humorous the historical where love la merely decorative we have wall street as a topic industrial conditions and every phase of modern complex life ot all these none has supplanted the pure romance in popular affection or weakened tho power of the story of loyal love A modern of the moderns a man of affairs in the forefront of practical life found he bad touched a common and responsive chord in the apparent extravagance 0 these four little lines tot from the whole wide world I 1 chess thee sweetheart light of the land and cea the whole wide world could not thee for thou art the wide world to roe the excellent things said by the masters of literature on the subject of love alone would indeed make a considerable sid erable library few are even tho prose writers who have not touched upon it of the harm that has been wrought by low and immoral presentations of this josf important subject and by false and morbid treatment not less than by the intentionally licentious no estimate could approach the truth in this as gnall other ethical aspects of fiction there must come an elevation in the public mind before any but the greatest masters can lacking the seers foresight place love in ita right relation to the other elements ot character already the love story has taken one long step in the recognition of wedded love as the ideal and highest type no more does it break off abruptly at the altar for of necessity no more is love after marriage regarded as less interesting and less dramatic than the fren aled ardor of immature youths and maidens thackeray reached no higher point in his art than in one little scene between a pair john and his wife whose love had endured through a lifetime the old man is in anguish ed fear of the effect upon his wife of the announcement that he has brought her in her age to poverty As he spoke he trembled in every limb and almost fell lie thought tha news would have overpowered his wife his wife to whom he had never salda sald a bard word but it was he kastne boost moved sudden as the shock was to her when he sank back nto his scat it was his wife that stock the office 0 consoler she took his and kissed it and put it around her neck she cabled him her bohu her house in which thackeray passed tha last two years of his life dear john her old man her kind old man she poured out a hundred words ot incoherent love and tenderness her faithful voice and simple caresses wrought this sad heart up to an inexpressible delight and anguish and cheered and solaced his overburdened soul one such wife in fiction means many eccli wives in real life and can it be thought that john sedley ever la hla ufa made a more important decision than between marrying or bot marrying that woman the love lettera of victor hugo afford an interesting instance of how a man full of the consciousness of gen lus burning to bla finger tips with the vital force that waa to spend itself in achievement felt this and all else within him subordinated to his love 1 I am often told he says to quote one of many similar passages that r am to achieve a dazzling reputation 1 I repeat athla hyperbole in its exact words for my own part I 1 care only for domestic happiness 1 have no hope or desire to give to anything but you love Is the only feeling that cannot bo exaggerated it to obtain you sooner all that was feces bary was to abandon the projects and dreams of my whole life I 1 should undertake it joyfully any adola whether or not he would have repented later had ho been taken at hla word might well be inquired into the sacrifice was not demanded both the alfo of his choice and the career of hla appointed destiny were his but no reader ot hla letters can doubt bla sin in all that be professed love predominates in fiction because it predominates in life evanescent passion unrequited affection be piteous self blinded devotion that worships at a ahrone whose idol inevitably falls to dust and ruin immortal love alas too aarein onea form or another the master passion comes to all and to each whether he recognizes if or not nd alfo la never the same again isaji by D sampson |